driftfleet | video broadcast

Who: The Vision
Broadcast: Fleetwide, open
Action: The abandoned bug ship
When: 6/27 late in the day

[The video opens up to show what sure is a red-skinned guy in a skin-tight blue suit with a bright yellow jewel on his forehead. Someone isn't going for subtlety with his look. When he speaks, it's with a cultured voice and a light British accent.]

Good evening. For those of you I have not yet met, my name is the Vision and yes, this is my normal appearance. I am an engineer aboard the SS Windrose. Like many of you I have been exploring the derelict ship and I believe it is possible to cleanse it of the fungal infection using a process known as vacuum sterilization. Essentially this means moving the air to one half the ship and opening airlocks on the other half, allowing anything not securely bolted to be swept into space - including infectious spores. We would then close the doors, filter the air, move it to the disinfected side and repeat the process. Once it is clean, we may investigate further without fear of infection to ourselves and determine if the ship is capable of being used by us, either for our own purposes or to return to its original owners.

[His expression softens to one of sorrow.] However, in order to be fully confident this cleansing would be effective, it would be necessary to release the infected bodies of the fallen life-forms into space as well. They were once fully sapient individuals, before the infection took hold, and such an action should not be undertaken lightly. Is this a course of action the Fleet would support? If there are any of you who are conversant in such things, would you consider holding a funeral or memorial ceremony for those who have been our enemies?

I welcome your input. Thank you for listening.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Oh, good. I didn't work on the filtration system much when I was down there; I was more worried about getting the power back on so we could find out what happened.

[He glances around, looks unsure.]

Yeah, uh... I wouldn't bet on it. [He's still not entirely sure how they're able to see everything. He wouldn't even believe it if he hadn't heard Diamond or whoever going off about how the worlds are watching. All nine of them? That's embarrassing to think about.]

Oh, right. You said you're called-- the Vision, right? I'm Hiccup. [A pause, and a slight grin.] Now you can say you're not the only one with a weird name.

As it requires power, that was a good choice. Even so, a redundant backup such as additional air nearby is typically wise in space.

I am not, but it would be a nice thought.

Yes, I did. I'm glad to meet you, Hiccup. [He doesn't mind so much having an unusual name. He wouldn't want anyone to mistake him for normal.]

Yeah.

[He likes this guy.]

It's nice to meet you, too. [Normal names aren't really a thing in his village. If he was a normal Viking lad with a normal Viking name, he'd probably be like... Bearface or something like that. Gods, that'd be awful.]

It sounds like you're some kind of-- seer? Ours is a medicine woman, but I don't see why there can't be medicine men too. Odin can give anyone prophecies I suppose.

It would be more accurate to say that I was seen. [He taps the yellow gem on his forehead.] This stone is a source of great power. It is said that for a time Loki weilded it and brought great destruction to the world. Later, its powers were used to give some humans great abilities, but killed most of those it touched. I was created specifically to bear it, and was brought to life with the blessing of Thor's thunder.

[His eyes widen. Usually something like that is just an old folktale, but this guy doesn't seem like the type to lie. Anyway, holy is holy. He's not exactly the most reverent of Vikings but he can't ignore something like that...]

I've... never heard of anything like that. It's crazy. You're saying you're like some kind of artificial being?

[WOW.]

I have got to meet you. In person, I mean. That's-- that's amazing. I knew Thor-power could do some amazing things, I mean all it takes is one look around, but wow.

[And for his part, the Vision is fascinated to find someone with the old religion. He'd like nothing more for his friend Thor to be here, but in his absence perhaps the Vision can help to look after his people.]

Yes, that would be accurate. The term I use is android, a word meaning like a man. My body is largely made from a rare metal. [Hence the unusual colorin, of course.]

I would be happy to meet with you in person. Perhaps we could work on recovering data from the ship together?

Android. Gods, I-- I don't have the words. [He's way more excited now than he was going into this.]

I'd love to work with you. I mean, it's not because I want to treat you like an experiment. That's not what I'm about. It's just-- you have more experience with this stuff than I do, and I want to learn everything I can.

[It's infectious, that enthusiasm.]

I would, of course, be happy to. I think there is much we can all learn from each other, no matter our different knowledge levels. I'll look forward to it.

[Terribly infectious. Good thing his friends aren't around to rain on his parade.]

I could tell you some things about my world, if you want. There's a distinct lack of dragons here so it's probably not useful knowledge, but...

I'd like that. I've never seen a dragon myself.

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video; wrap for now?